This browser does not support the Video element.
Family of man killed on CapMetro bus files suit
The family of a man who was stabbed to death on a CapMetro bus in May is speaking out. This comes as they're filing a lawsuit against the bus operator, who's accused of letting the suspect on even when he didn't pay. FOX 7 Austin's Angela Shen reports.
AUSTIN, Texas - The family of Akshay Gupta, 30, who was stabbed to death on a CapMetro bus in May, is speaking out.
This comes as they're filing a lawsuit against the bus operator, who is accused of letting the suspect get on even when he didn't pay.
What they're saying:
Gupta's parents and brother spoke to FOX 7 Austin from India.
"He was dedicated to humanity. You know, he was not worried about himself," Manju Gupta, Akshay's mother, said.
"He was such a giving nature person, and he was a helpful person. He was an outstanding, brilliant person," Ankur Gupta, Akshay's brother, said.
Akshay came to the U.S. in 2022 from India to get his master's degree at Penn State University, finishing in just one year instead of two. After briefly working in Florida, he moved to Austin in 2024, because he thought it'd be a good place for a startup. He was working on a device to detect falls in elderly people, inspired by his grandparents.
"His dream was to make it a better place for everyone, for the elderly, for the poor," Ankur said.
He was on an O-1 visa, which is for those with extraordinary ability.
He competed in innovation competitions, many with his longtime friend Garv Jasuja. Jasuja says his ideas were often for helping people.
"He never participated for winning, he participated for having fun, for having to build something, for having built some ideas from scratch from ground up," Jasuja said.
The backstory:
On May 14, Akshay was on a CapMetro bus on South Lamar Blvd.
Police say Deepak Kandel, 31, was sitting next to him. He stabbed Akshay in the neck unprovoked before calmly walking off. Kandel told police he stabbed him because he resembled his uncle.
"It was just devastating," Manju said.
"That person did not just kill Akshay. He killed a part of us," Ankur said.
"We are missing him a lot. It is very difficult to live without him," Ashock Gupta, Akshay's father, said.
Last month, Kandel was found incompetent to stand trial.
What's next:
Now, Akshay's parents are filing a lawsuit against Keolis Transit Services, which was contracted to operate the CapMetro bus. The lawsuit accuses the driver of negligence and letting Kandel get on when he didn't pay the bus fare, which is a class C misdemeanor.
Aaron von Flatern, founding partner of FVF Law, is representing Akshay's family.
"Keolis didn't follow the basic rules of requiring people that boarded the bus to have some kind of credentials, be it a free fare card or money or a bus pass or a credit card or a phone, nothing like that was checked before this man got on the bus," he said. "There have been many studies across the country, including right here in Austin, experiments involving free fares on the bus, basically open bus policies that have resulted in disasters where violent crime spiked."
Gupta's family hopes the court system will give them justice, and that no one else gets hurt.
"If he was not a sane person, such a person should not be left open on the street to harm people," Ankur said. "Such brilliant people should not be killed in such a way in such a mindless act from a mindless person."
Keolis says they do not comment on pending litigation.
CapMetro says because they are not named in the lawsuit, they are not commenting.
The Source: Information in this report comes from reporting/interviews by FOX 7 Austin's Angela Shen and previous reporting